HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Bundesliga January 30, 2015 Volkswagen Arena Wolfsburg 4 - 1 Bayern Munich The 4-1 victory of Wolfsburg over Bayern Munich came from two sources: Wolfsburg’s sharp teeth and Bayern’s ability to bite itself. Bavarian losses are rare and they always warrant an explanation. This time the defeat was
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Bundesliga December 19, 2014 Coface Arena Mainz 05 1 v 2 Bayern Munich Bayern Munich may well have put out their weakest showing to date against Mainz. They were uninspiring when on the attack and at times lacking coverage defensively. Let us see if we can single
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Bundesliga November 29, 2014 Olympiastadion Berlin Berlin 1 v 0 Bayern Munich This was not the match of the year, but Bayern once again made their case as an efficient vertical attacking side. When they took to the pitch Hertha Berlin knew that their defense was weak, especially
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Bundesliga November 8, 2014 Commerzbank-Arena; Frankfurt Bayern Munich 4 v 0 Frankfurt Bayern Munich went for the jugular when they faced Frankfurt. Frankfurt tried to keep up the pace with aggressive pressing, but the Eagles had their wings sliced off, as they were caught ball watching excessively often and
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Bayern Munich opened the new Bundesliga season as Champions but without a fully fit squad and missing several key central midfielders, including Toni Kroos who was sold to Real Madrid. In central midfield, they had unknown teenager Gianluca Gaudino and David Alaba, not an ideal pairing on paper if you don’t realise that David Alaba is one of the best footballers in the world in several positions.
In attack, they had a potent from 3 in Robben, Mueller and new signing Robert Lewandowski, players who will always create and score chances.
The game plan for Bayern Munich was to nullify the threat of Kevin de Bruyne and Ricardo Rodriguez down the left side by limiting their space in transition, while pinning them back while Bayern were in possession by dominating the zone with a flood of players and a constant attacking presence.
Bayern set up – Flood the right side and look for 4v3 on the side
As we can see, Bayern would have 4 players wide on the right side, which enables them to
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett German Bundesliga 6 September, 2014 Bayern Munich 1 v 1 FC Schalke Ranging from quite impressive all the way to plain poor, Schalke forced Bayern into quite the “transition” over the duration of the match of which they finished level in Gelsenkirchen. What happened to cause such a drastic
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Borussia Dortmund lost to Bayern Munich in the 2013 Champions League Final, the 2014 German Cup Final, and lost Robert Lewandowski to their domestic rivals on a free transfer. They have however, now won the last 2 German Super Cups.
Jurgen Klopp has made some slight changes to his team and the structure and these slight changes worked perfectly against the 3-4-3 of Bayern Munich.
Positioning against the Bayern build-up phase
With Bayern playing a 3-4-3 formation, they have great width to circulate horizontally, so to counter this, Dortmund
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett German Bundesliga Saturday, 30 August, 2014 Bayern Munich 3 v 0 Hamburg The former Barcelona manager had a couple of surprises up his sleeve for his first outing with his new charges against Hamburg. Even if the formation seen was usual for a Pep Guardiola team, how
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett German Cup Final Saturday, 17 May, 2014 Dortmund 2v0 Bayern Munich This match was one that Bayern Munich needed to really establish themselves at the top of German football. Borussia Dortmund, on the other hand, needed to prevent them from doing so because they themselves were in dire need
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Champions League 2nd Leg (0-1 aggregate) Wednesday, 30 April, 2014 Allianz Arena Bayern 0v4 Real Madrid This is the time of the year when the going gets tough and the clubs that eventually go on to claim the honours in May, are really forced to elevate their game
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve, Author of Coaching the 4-2-3-1, Modern Soccer Tactics and Winning Soccer Tactics. Check out his new book, Coaching the 4-2-3-1 Advanced Tactics here.
Barcelona v Bayern Munich (0-3) Champions League Semi-Final 2nd Leg, April 2013
Bayern Target Barcelona’s Full Backs to Create Goal Scoring Chances
Robben Goal – Alaba’s long pass opens up the space on the far side
Alaba has possession and can see that Alba is too narrow (out of picture) and Robben will be able to receive on the far side. He drills the
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